My Awkward Photo Op With Anthony Bourdain

Yesterday -before work - I went to Book Passage in the Ferry Building to have Anthony Bourdain sign my copy of his new book, "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook."

I'm a big fan of course. I love to watch his TV program "No Reservations" with my son who digs it almost as much as I do. It's perhaps not the best program for kids but believe it or not, I think my son learns a lot from it. His mind is opened up to other countries, cultures and their food. My son is also adventurous with food. He may not like everything but is usually willing to try something new, which I find to be a very appealing attitude. I think the majority of people I get on with the best are also those who love and appreciate different kinds of food and aren't afraid of pushing their culinary boundaries.

Despite the "educational" aspects I think my son also loves all the cursing. Even though it's bleeped out, he gets a huge kick out of it in addition to Bourdain's other humorous observations. My son is well aware that Bourdain is a bad man and he likes him all the more for it. I wanted to bring my son along but he was in school.

I waited outside in long queue while I baked in the sun until it was my turn. I had him sign the book to my son and myself and then took a photo. Bourdain was hopped up on Red Bull and looked slightly overwhelmed, though mostly content. I really didn't say anything to him besides "thank you" as I had to assist the kind woman taking photos with the zoom feature on my camera. She got it figured out just in time to take this awkward looking snap.

And faster than Bourdain slides on the ice in the opening sequence of his program, I was back in the Ferry Building wondering if I should buy a six dollar Affogato with Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream at Blue Bottle Coffee.

-güero

GÜERO READS: THE GASTRONOMY OF MARRIAGE

Gastronomy of Marriage: A Memoir Of Food And Love by Michelle Maisto, Random House (Sep 2009)

Sadly, in today’s world, 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce – that rate even higher in California. If any of us were told that we would have a 50 percent chance of being run over by a car if we crossed the street, surely most of us would not bank on those odds and stay safely put. But despite the awareness of those odds, many of today’s couples, as they always have, double down and make the nuptial plunge. In her first memoir, “Gastronomy of Marriage: A Memoir of Food And Love”, author and certified foodie, Michelle Maisto, well aware of the pitfalls of marriage, takes great care and thought into her own decisions. As the title clearly states, it’s about food and love: two subjects that for Maisto, and for the benefit of the reader, are scrumptiously intertwined.

Maisto, who is Italian-American, opens up her heart like a well-stocked pantry. Though her eyes, she recounts the story of her courtship and engagement to Rich, a fellow writer who happens to be Chinese American,(It’s like Marco Polo realized in America!) in an honest, thoughtful and well, just down right delicious way. Maisto observes her thoughts on love and life and blends them tastefully with her fondness and fascination with food – instilled in her from generation to generation though her Italian heritage.

As anyone who has been in a relationship knows, when two people come together, we come as individuals: with different backgrounds, different points of view and in many cases (especially now-a-days) - different religions and cultures. Along with all of that, of course, are differences with regards to what, when and how we eat. All these things we bring to the table and Maisto, a self-professed home kitchen expert, takes up the Iron Chef challenge.

All told, I must say that this story was most revealing to me because I know the author and her husband, Rich, personally. Rich and I were roommates and friends for over two years in Los Angeles and we have continued somehow to stay in touch despite his and Michelle’s successful and busy lives in New York. I always understood how much they meant to one another but reading about them really brought a depth and texture to their relationship that I could have never otherwise appreciated. Michelle has not just written a book about recipes and ingredients for great tasting meals; it’s about taking everything you have, what’s available, what’s nourishing and creating your own ingredients for deep, kind and lasting relationship.

(Reader Caution: make sure you are not hungry while reading! The author of this book possesses mysterious powers in which she uses words that will titillate the taste buds!)

-the Guero

Michelle Maisto will be hosting three upcoming book signings here on the West Coast:

SAN FRANCISCO:

Thursday, September 24, 6PM at OMNIVORE BOOKS

3885 Cesar Chavez St

San Francisco, CA 94131-2013

(415) 282-4712

Friday, September 25, 12:30 PM at ALEXANDER BOOK COMPANY

50 Second St

San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 495-2992

LOS ANGELES:

Saturday, September 26, 2 PM at BOOKSOUP

8818 W Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90069-2125

(310) 659-3110

Also you can visit her wonderful blog, The Market Report.

COP A FEELING: NUÑO IN PRINT FORM

Yes! I've finally been recognized and will be put in print! That's right, don't ask me why but artists Jonathan Harris and Sep Kanvar have included me in their new book entitled "We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion" from Simon & Schuster which will be released in December of this year. Alright, perhaps I'm overstating my contribution as it is very small if not insignificant - possibly just a photo and/or a snippet from this blog - but you know me, I'll take recognition wherever I can get it!

Harris and Kanvar created a project entitled We Feel Fine, which uses elements of computer science, anthropology, visual arts and storytelling to explore human feelings. They essentially created a computational system that records people's feelings all over the world by searching for them via weblogs, twitters, etc. Anyway, they actually used my "feelings" from my blog post a few years ago for their online project and now they are using a different post for their print version. They informed me in their e-mail that I would be on the page for Election Day 2008, which I suppose is a pretty good date to be on.

In case you are wondering: no, I'm not getting paid jack-didley from this deal but they did say, I could get a free copy of the book and that I'm welcomed to attend their Launch party in New York, but under the present circumstances, it's not bloody likely that I will make it.

If you liked to check out the We Feel Fine website, you can go here and play around with it. Well what can I say? I guess I "feel" honored. Hmmm...let's see if that feeling makes it the cut!

ON THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION: THOUGHTS ON "THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES" BY ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA

So in light of the 50 year Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the recently released Steven Soderberg films: "Che Part 1" and "Che Part 2", I've decided to post this little review/essay about Ernest "Che" Guevara. I wrote it last summer, just after my wife and I were wrapping up our "failed" business venture in San Diego and I just never got around to posting it. So if politics and history bore you, don't read it! And equally, if you are a political and historical expert, don't criticize me!

July 2, 2008

So a few weeks ago, whilst preparing to leave San Diego, I finished reading "The Motorcycle Diaries" as I'm fascinated as anyone else with Sr. Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He's a much more complicated man than the rebellious icon he's been made out to be. Many of his observations are right on and others well...let's just say he was a man of his time and place and some of his musings would by today's standards be considered, perhaps slightly, racist and homophobic. But to be fair, those things are minor compared to his overall view of the world and it's problems and the solutions he felt were necessary.

The issue I have with Guevara’s ideas is that he felt that individualism should be eradicated for the good of all people- an idea that, to me, is an extraordinary contradiction of his own character. As I see it, his life (and he would probably stab me mercilessly in my bourgeoisie throat for saying so) was more American than anything else. After all, here he is, a young Argentinian doctor born into an upper-middle class of Irish/Spanish descent, who can afford to put his professional career on hold and live a life of adventure: tear-assing across the beautiful vastness of Latin America. That’s sounds more like Jack Kerouac than Karl Marx. So in his speech to Cuban medical graduates (in the last entry of the book), he goes on to condemn the power and will of individualism – the very vital quality that allowed his own social and political transformation. So I have to ask, how did he feel about denying this freedom of choice to others?

So when it comes down to it, I think the people who mindlessly wear t-shirts and hats with Guevara are just that - mindless. Equally, so are the right wing conservatives who seem to have no shortage of books, documentaries and web sites painting him as a blood thirsty, cold blooded murderer.

The first group seems to ignore that Guevara did indeed oversee hundreds of executions- without trial and berated and belittled his own fellow comrades who thought there should be some sort of justice by way of trials. He was also known for having the families bare witness to the executions of loved ones. They also seem to ignore or overlook that Guevara had no mercy with the Indians, who fought on the side of governments he was trying to undue. Not taking into account that these poor Indians fought not out of ideology, but of economic necessity – to feed their families. In deed, in some of his own writings, Guevara admits to succumbing to bloodlust and enjoying the excitement of battle. That said, it' no surprise that he would leave the tedious, day-to-day business of running Castro’s Cuba in order to chase revolutionary glory in Bolivia, where he was killed in a manner not unfamiliar to his own tactics.

The second group, on the other hand, tends to ignore the context of the time and place in which Guevara lived. During that period, the US had a notorious habit of using its C.I.A. to dismantle democratically elected governments all over Latin America. Putting in their stead, military dictatorships that ruled with unspeakable brutality and oppression. While they belittle Guevara, they don’t often expound upon the "greatness and compassion" of American “friendly” leaders like, Fulgencio Batista, Carlos Castillo Armas or Augusto Pinochet. I mean, let’s face it, these guys and others like them, were evil, scum-sucking shit bags of the first order and they had no reservations about raping and fleecing their own country with reckless, gleeful abandon. Our government was there and they were ready and all too eager to assist. It’s also apparent that the Guevara detractors easily overlook, or dismiss similar actions committed or permitted by the US, such as the recently reported mass executions during the Korean War.

I'd like to go on but I don't really have the time to properly analyze and write all that I would like to in regards to the diary itself and the man. But to sum this up quickly, I'll only say that it’s just not helpful to understand Mr. Guevara by reducing his rebellious image on bumper stickers or t-shirts. Guevara is just too complicated a figure - in death as he was in life.

WEEKEND READING: NO MAN'S LAND

I discovered this book quite accidentally as I was searching for Chuck Palahniuk's books at the library. What a serendipitous find! "No Man's Land" is a collection of translated short stories written by Mexican author, Eduardo Antonio Parra and published by City Lights Publishing right here in San Francisco.

These gritty short stories take place in the cities and deserts of Northern Mexico where humanity is often stretched to its unbearable limits. Poverty, corruption, sex and cold-hearted violence paint a background canvas for portraits of characters who struggle and suffer immeasurably for the chance of a better life.

Parra's hardcore writing style is brutally yet beautifully descriptive, like a car crash in slow motion(in fact, one story is indeed about an auto wreck). No human act of depravity is too taboo for Para to explore in this world where horror and hope are perpetually intertwined. I highly recommend this book if you can find it. It doesn't seem like there is much fanfare but I hope that more of Parra's work is translated soon!!